Category: Your Health

Why do people act the way they do? Many of us intuitively gravitate toward explaining human behavior in terms of personality traits: characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that tend to be stable over time and consistent across situations. This intuition has been a topic of fierce scientific debate

Tests you can take at home to check for colorectal cancer are now recommended on par with colonoscopy. It’s a predictable passage in life: Hit 50, get lots of birthday cards with old-age jokes, a mailbox full of AARP solicitations — and a colonoscopy. But millions of Americans — about

Stacks of boxes containing critical supplies stretch almost as far as the eye can see in this Strategic National Stockpile warehouse. When Greg Burel tells people he’s in charge of some secret government warehouses, he often gets asked if they’re like the one at the end of Raiders of the

Why do people act the way they do? Many of us intuitively gravitate toward explaining human behavior in terms of personality traits: characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that tend to be stable over time and consistent across situations. This intuition has been a topic of fierce scientific debate

Researchers have long known that exercise is good for the brain. An enzyme produced by muscles might help explain why. Researchers have identified a substance in muscles that helps explain the connection between a fit body and a sharp mind. When muscles work, they release a protein that appears to

Twelve years ago, I tried to drive a stake into the heart of the personality-testing industry. Personality tests are neither valid nor reliable, I argued, and we should stop using them — especially for making decisions that affect the course of people’s lives, like workplace hiring and promotion. But if

Most children in the U.S. don’t drink enough water, and summer heat and outdoor play can increase water needs. Most children in the United States do not drink enough water, and when it’s hot outside, they may need to drink even more. But getting children to drink water can be

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from the latest episode of the Invisibilia podcast and program, which is broadcast on participating public radio stations. This story contains language that some may find offensive. Listen To The Episode This is the story of a prisoner who committed a horrible crime and

Gazing at a smartphone in the dark can give people the feeling that they’ve temporarily lost vision in one eye. A 22-year-old woman in England thought she was going blind in one eye. She could always see fine out of her left eye. But on some nights, the right eye

How do you stay on the family health plan without your parents finding out about your health issues? The Affordable Care Act opened the door for millions of young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they turn 26. But there’s a downside to remaining on the family

Markets

President Obama speaks at the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Concerns about a possible “Brexit” were floating in the air as British investors met with state economic teams at the two-day summit. If you’re on the economic development team for your state, you are happy — dancing-in-the-street

Treatments

When mental health professionals don’t take insurance, only the wealthy can afford their help. There’s something that really bothers Stanford psychiatry professor Keith Humphreys. When he thinks of all the years he has spent training the next generation of psychiatrists, the enormous investment in medical school and residency, he wants